Friday, September 14, 2012

Gunpowder
– Gunpowder was discovered in a checked bag at Boston (BOS)
while Officers were resolving an Explosive Detection System (EDS) alarm.

Items
in the Strangest Places
–It’s important to check your bags prior to traveling. If a prohibited item is
discovered in your bag, you could be cited and possibly arrested by law
enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where prohibited items were
found in strange places.

A
pocketknife was discovered in a shoe at Salt Lake City (SLC).

Using
a body scanner, Officers discovered an 8 oz. bottle of vodka discovered in a passengers pants at Nashville (BNA).

Inert
Grenades Etc. –
We continue to find hand grenades and other weaponry on weekly basis. Please
keep in mind that if something looks like a bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is
prohibited - real or not. When these items are found at a checkpoint, they can
cause significant delays. I know they are cool novelty items, but it is best
not to take them on a plane. Read here
and here on
why inert items cause problems.

A
belt buckle in the shape of a hand grenade slowed down operations at Kona (KOA)
while we went through the proper steps to ensure it wasn’t a live grenade.

Unfortunately these
sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these
finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but
at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed
down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or
in some cases is even arrested. This is a friendly reminder to please leave
these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual
does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer
to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.

TSA
officers screen millions of passengers every day to protect the traveling
public and are held to the highest levels of professional and ethical
standards.

You
may have heard about a passenger in Houston last week who claimed that TSA
officers prevented her from boarding her flight in “retaliation” for her “attitude.”

But
what you may not have heard is that the passenger refused a random screening
procedure. The passenger initially ignored officers and then became verbally
abusive. When a traveler does not allow a TSA officer to complete screening,
it’s standard procedure for a law enforcement officer to be called to the area.
When the officer arrived and observed the behavior firsthand, he asked if TSA
wanted to press charges. We declined.

To
be clear -- airline employees, not TSA, made the call about whether to allow
this passenger to board their flight.

We
take these matters seriously, so we thoroughly reviewed the incident and have
concluded that this passenger was screened in accordance with standard
procedures. We also viewed the video circulating on the internet
(although only part of the video is actually available) and watched as the TSA
officer began to explain that screening is designed to make passengers safer. The
video abruptly ends before the officer is able to answer the questions fully.

Let’s
set the record straight. Our goal is to get passengers on their flights
and safely to their destinations.